Eduardo Miranda
The Daily Independent
The Raymond McCue Pavilion hosted a matchup between the No. 19 Cerro Coso women's basketball team and No. 12 Mt. San Jacinto, which entered the game undefeated in Inland Empire Athletic Conference play. The Coyotes blitzed the Eagles in the first 10 minutes which led to a 92-60 win, the first conference loss for Mt. San Jacinto.
"It was huge," said head coach Keshawn Johnson on the win. "Big for confidence if nothing else. We learned to play the right way today, which we are constantly trying to work on. It was a big win. It was exciting for the group. We took one to them earlier and we lost, so our group has a big chip on our shoulder when it comes to that kind of stuff. They really wanted it, and they came out with fire."
Cerro Coso finished with six players scoring in double digits, led by Shaniyah McCarthy with 21 points, nine rebounds, three assists, and a block. Off the bench, Lia Sims had 15 points, nine rebounds, and a block. Savannah Rowland had 14 points, Shayla Kantarevic had 11 points, Alexis Staton had 12 points, and Sierra Dixson added 10 points.
Cerro Coso won the rebound battle against Mt. San Jacinto 51-29 and the offensive rebound battle 16-4. The Coyotes won the assist battle 15-11 and blocks 6-2, but they lost the steals battle 9-10 and turnover battle 18-23.
The Coyotes began the game with a 7-0 run with McCarthy, Kantarevic, and Staton all scoring. The visitors scored the next four points, and the Coyotes responded with a 23-0 run to close the quarter.
The run began with Iliana Nye hitting a corner three, McCarthy scoring at the free-throw line and Sims scoring a layup from an offensive rebound, before Dixson scored both her free throws and Kantarevic hit a corner three, forcing a timeout by the visitors. After the timeout, Sims grabbed the offensive rebound and hit a fadeaway jump shot and Kantarevic hit a corner three, which then led to a Coyotes timeout. The quarter ended with Rowland scoring three free throws and McCarthy hitting a three-pointer for a 30-4 lead.
Johnson said on his team's first-quarter performance, "again, just the energy of them wanting that game, I think is what drives them. We talked a lot about it. We said we have to pack the first punch and then we have to punch for 30 more minutes after the first punch in the first quarter. We put together 40 full minutes, and that's all we can ask for. It just so happened that the ball went in at times and we got stops at times. We happened to pull away with the W."
Cerro Coso won the second quarter 17-16 to go into the half leading 47-20. The quarter began with Rowland hitting a three-pointer and Nye scoring from an offensive rebound. In a bizarre situation, Kantarevic hit a three to give the home team a 38-6 lead, but McCarthy was hit with a technical foul for her celebration of the three pointer. The technical helped Mt. San Jacinto's offense get into a flow, and the Eagles scored the next seven points until Dixson hit a corner three. Staton closed the quarter hitting a three from the top of the key, making a free throw, and using a stutter step to get an uncontested layup before halftime.
Coming out of the half, Cerro Coso scored the first points on a banked three by Staton, but the Eagles scored the next six points. The Coyotes stopped the run when McCarthy scored both her free throws. But the visitors went on another run that had both Mt. San Jacinto and Cerro Coso call timeouts, as the Coyotes' offense struggled to get any good looks and turned the ball over.
During the run, the Coyotes continued to run the offense and defense, and battle the Eagles after their lead was cut to 52-35. Cerro Coso began to find its rhythm with back-to-back jumpers from Sims and Nye. McCarthy scored at the free-throw line and Sims finished a three-point play for a 61-38 lead. The quarter ended with Sims hitting both her free throws for a 63-43 lead.
Johnson said on his team keeping its composure during the Eagles' runs in the third, "for us it was big. We talked about it at halftime, we went in there and said it was back to 0-0 so don't get too high on the score, don't think anything else, it's a blank game. We went back into the third quarter with a 0-0 mentality, and to be honest when we were talking in our huddles, we were talking more about how they were beating us that quarter versus the total score of the game. When they went on that 9-0 run, we just said we are down 9-0 and now we have to battle. Our mentality was 0-0."
The Coyotes put down any chance of the Eagles making a comeback, scoring 29 points in the final 10 minutes.
The quarter began with the home team on an 8-0 run beginning with a jump shot by McCarthy, a layup by Sims, a layup by Dixson, and McCarthy making both her free throws for a 71-43 lead. But the visitors scored the next five points forcing Cerro Coso to call a timeout.
Coming out of the timeout, Cerro Coso went on a 16-0 run with Nye scoring a layup and Rowland making both her free throws. Dixson hit a corner three, Rowland made a reverse layup, Sims made a three, McCarthy hit a fadeaway jump shot, and Rowland made her two free throws to end the run and give her team an 86-48 lead. The Coyotes ended the quarter with McCarthy scoring back-to-back layups and then made another from an offensive rebound but missed the and-one free throw.
Cerro Coso has two games left in the season, a road game at San Bernardino Valley on Wednesday and the home finale against Barstow on Friday.
Johnson said about having two games left, "yeah, it's big for us because we needed to learn how to win tough and we did it. We know what it means from our home standpoint, we are undefeated at home, and we wanted to protect that. The next two games are huge. We win big at times and then fall asleep against our next opponent, so the same thing, we don't get too high on the wins and we don't get too low on the losses. We are going to the drawing board and seeing what we need to do to get a win over San Bernardino Valley on Wednesday."